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Is it Safe to Leave Computer on 24/7?

Piratesmate

Posted 30 November 2006 - 11:52 AM

Piratesmate

Member

Member

60 posts

Question # 1: Is it safe (meaning the computer has more chance of being "hacked" being on than being off) to leave my home computer on 24/7 and is it also true that it uses less electricity by leaving the computer on than by turning it off and on all the time?

Question # 2: Is IE7 "safe" to download/replace IE6 on my home computer? The computer techs at work have advised us not to download the new version yet because of flaws in the new IE7. Should I wait to download the newer version? I have heard that the newer version has more safety features than IE6.
Has there been a lot of problems with people using/downloading the newer version?

SRX660

Posted 30 November 2006 - 01:43 PM

SRX660

motto - Just get-er-done

Technician

4,345 posts

A computer is always much safer while it is not running. The thing is they are really built to run 24/7 and there is the notion that heating up and cooling off the hardware causes more damage than running at a constant temperature. Servers all over the world are running for years without shutting off.

The one thing that has happened to me is a lightning strike hit my house while i was using a computer and the computer went up in a cloud of smoke. Luckily i am very safety conscious and have some small fire extinguishers in every room of my house. the computer was completely fried and the power supply did catch on fire slightly.

So my conclusion is to never leave computers running when there is no one home to take care of problems. I would rather lose a little life span of the computer to constant heating/cooling cycles than come home to a burned down house.

Personally i do not think the startup higher amp draw of a computer would be considered more usage than having a computer running while doing nothing with it. I don't think the equalivent of 2 or 3 - 100 watt lightbulbs makes that much difference in my electric bill every month to worry about usage.

One problem i am hearing on the internet is some websites are set to only recognize IE6 and not newer browsers, so they come up with page not found errors on IE7.

Retired Tech

Posted 30 November 2006 - 01:48 PM

Retired Tech

Retired Staff

Retired Staff

20,563 posts

Whenever Internet Explorer releases a new major version, Microsoft makes every attempt to coordinate the change with major web site owners so that users who upgrade to the latest version can take advantage of new features available on the upgraded browsing platform. A character string called the “User Agent String” identifies the major version of the browser to web sites so that the sites can offer certain functionality on particular browser versions. In some cases, websites might misidentify a new version of IE as an outdated version, with results ranging from rendering and behavior issues to total rejection of the user. This utility changes certain registry keys on an IE 7.0 installation to allow a user to emulate an IE 6.0 installation as a simple workaround until problematic sites update their code. It also offers users the option to report these problematic sites to Microsoft.